Dear Mark, In a your May 15, 2001
column in Casino Guide online, you wrote the longest roll without a seven being
rolled was 3 hours, 6 minutes. I was at the Golden Phoenix in Reno, NV this
weekend, and the roll lasted 3 hours, 10 minutes without a seven. Since
I watched the first hour of the roll, I only scored $2200 off a $100 buy-in,
playing only place and come bets with max odds. However, those who were betting
the table max ($500 plus 3-4-5 odds) by the end of the third hour scored $3500
on a couple points, totaling about $15,000 for the roll. It was funny to watch
the casino reload the table with chips four times, as they didn¹t have
enough originally on the table to keep paying everyone. Perhaps the best part
was this was not a "high-roller" table. Everyone there started betting
the table $5 minimums. Nice to see the little guy get a break. Chris C.
Craps offers players
gambling immortality if ever a "long roll" should happen when they
are bellied up to a crap table. Your roll, Chris, might even get you a mention
in the figurative Craps Hall of Fame, and it certainly is worthy of mention
in this column, especially since you made some Ka-ching.
Breaking
the bank, where jittery pit bosses keep calling for chip refills, does not
necessarily drape everyone with gaming glory. Your good fortune leads me to
this important point: A long, extended roll doesn¹t necessarily boost
you from nada to nirvana. It is the "quality" of the roll that dictates
whether you will have a celestial moment. If your numbers are rolling, your
game is spread out on the layout (example: additional come bets with odds),
and you are progressively betting more, you are looking at the potential for
the roll of a lifetime. Otherwise, the experience is nothing more than a tantalizing
also-ran, that first-class stimulant for the imagination. The longest roll
I was ever involved with was 73 no-seven throws, but it was simulated on a home
computer while I was watching an episode of Seinfeld. Though I have participated
in many 30-minute rolls, I have once witnessed a run of the dice that lasted just
under an hour and a half. For those wanting to know, before your undocumented
score (no disrespect; I just hadn¹t heard about it until you wrote me), the
hottest hand of all time belonged to Stanley Fujitake of Honolulu. Stanley held
the dice for three hours and six minutes at the California Hotel and Casino before
cinco dos, adios (the 7) appeared. If anyone of you was ever involved in a
killer hand, or, if you have met unusual characters or witnessed strange occurrences,
preferably in a casino, I would love to hear from you.
